Buckle.



E. J. KRAB'I'ZER.

BUCKLE. APPLIOATIO IY FILED JAN.18, 1906.

Patehted May 12, 1914.

Fi JIIL COLUMBIA PLANOURAPH C0.. WASHINGTON, B. C

Y ED STATES PATENT OFFTQE.

EDWIN J. KBAETZER, F SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF THREE-SIX-TEENTHS TO FREEBORN F. RAYMOND, 2D, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS; SAMUELCARR EXECUTOR OF SAID RAYMOND, DECEASED.

BUCKLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 12, 1914:.

Application filed January 18, 1906. Serial No. 286,621.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWIN J. KaAn'rznn, 0tSomerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, acitizen of the United States, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Buckles, of which the :t'ollowing is a full, clear, and exactdescription, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming apart of this specification, in explaining its nature.

My invention relates to that type of hue-- kle consisting of separablemembers which may be retained in interlocking engagement with oneanother or be separated as occa- SlOn may I'eqllll'c.

The essential object of my invention is to provide a buckle in which theinterlocking tongue or portion of the one member will engage with theother member from the upper side thereof as distinguished from that typeof buckle in which the interlocking engagement of the tongue is made bydrawing the tongue upwardly through the other member; and my inventionfurther essentially consists in so constructing the buckle that not onlywill the tongue carried by one member engage with the other member asaforesaid, but when in engagement will be held or maintained positivelyin place, or, in other words, so that it cannot become disengagedwithout a positive action of disengagement.

It is a further and even more essential ob ject of my invention toprovide a buckle having a smooth top, or one so constructed that it willnot injure those portions of garments brought into contact with it. Thislatter consideration is made especially with reference to the bucklewhen used on overshocs for which use my improved type of buckle isespecially adapted. It is one objectionable feature of the commonovershoe buckle now worn, especially when worn by women, that it fraysor wears the skirt by catching onto the same.

Accordingly, it my further object, as above explained, to so constructthe improved buckle that it will not have this fault.

My invention can best be seen and understood by rcference to thedrawings, in which- Figure 1 shows in plan the two members of thebuckle, the tongue carrying member shown in a disengaging position andseparated from the other member. Fig. 2 shows a plan of the buckle inwhich the two members thereof are in engagement with one another. Fig. 3shows a cross section on the line 33 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4: shows a likecross section excepting that the interlocking tongue portion of thebuckle is drawn out of engaging position. Fig. 5 shows in plan a blankfrom which is formed a portion of one member of the buckle. Fig. 6 showsa blank from which is formed the remaining portion of said member. Fig.7 shows in cross section a modified form of buckle to which specialreference will hereinafter be made. Fig. 8 shows in plan a blank fromwhich a portion of the buckle shown in Fig. 7 is formed. Fig. 9 shows ablank for forming a slight further modification there of. Fig. 10 showsa cross section of the same struck up.

In the drawings:A represents the active or interlocking tongue bearingmember of the buckle. B represents the passive member of the buckle, orladder with which the active member of the buckle makes an interlockingengagement. The members A and B are fastened, respectively, to the partsto be retained, connection preferably being made by means of therespective straps a. and b, although any other means for retaining themembers may be employed. It might also be explained at this point thatthe ladder member B is preferably substantially of the form heretoforeemployed in which there are a series of slots?) and adjacent bars b intoany one of which slots the tongue Off the interlocking member of thebuckle is adapted to extend and engage with the bar adjacent to it.

Referring now in detail to the construc tion of the active member A ofthe buckle, attention is first called to its body (L This portioncomprises a flattened plate having therein a slot at through whichpasses the strap a. From this portion of the buckle there projects anextension a from which depends a tongue (6 adapted to interlock with thepassive member B when the members of the buckle are brought intoconjunction with one another, as will now be explained.

()n the under side of the member A of the of disengagement.

buckle and connecting with the body thereof is what may be termed a resta. This rest is so arranged that the member B of the buckle may beinserted between the rest and the body a of the member A to be held bythe rest preparatory to locking the two parts of the buckle together. Inother words, the member B or passive member of the buckle is held by therest in place to receive the interlocking tongue a The rest a is carriedby a part or plate a which connects with the body a to extend alongbeneath the body and project forward therefrom, the

rest being formed by this forward-extending part which has slot oropening a in it just adjacent the rest into which opening the member Bof the buckle is adapted to be inserted to bear against the rest whenthe members of the buckle are brought into conjunction with one another.I prefer to make the part a of the member A integral with the bodyport-ion (4 thereof, a slot a being formed in said part a complementaryto the strap-receiving slot (4 in the body a the strap a, passingthrough both slots and around the interposed or integrally connectingpart or portion a between the slots. This portion a of the buckle forms,in other words, the strap bar with which the strap a connects. Besidesits adaptability as a strap bar the portion a may act as a spring,acting in other words .to yieldingly retain the body a of the member bywhich it or rather the tongue a carried by it, may be lifted out ofoperative position or engagement with the passive member B. The normalposition of the tongue (1. is one of engagement, or such that when thetwo members of the buckle are in conjunction with one another as abovedescribed, the tongue a will extend down into one of the slots 6 formedin the member l3 and lock against the bar 6 adjacent to such slot,locking the two members of the buckle together. The yielding retentionof the tongue a may be afforded in part by the strap bar a or the body aalone may be made yielding, or even the body extensionwhereby the tonguea may be released from,

or raised out of such engaging position.

Reference "ill now be made to the means by which the interlocking tonguea may be released, or lifted out of an engaging position into a positionof disengagement from the passive member B, as shown in Fig. i where thetwo membersz of the buckle are shown in conjunction with one another,but the interlocking tongue (i is in a position The means consists ofthe thumb piece a which acts as a lever for operator.

controlling the tongue. This thumbpiece is preferably made in the formshown and of about the same width as the body a of the member A of thebuckle and of which member it forms a part. In it is formed a slot oropening a adjacent to which is a bar a. This slot and adjacent bar areso arranged or adapted that when the thumb piece is combined with thebody a? of the member A of the buckle the tongue a will extend downthrough the slot or opening a in the thumb piece to make itsinterlocking engagement with the passive member B of the buckle asbefore descrlbed, while the bar a one another so that the entire surfaceof the member A of the buckle will have a smooth and attractiveappearance and with no corners or sharp edges upon which the garment ofthe wearer may catch. The tongue a and thumb piece thus conjoining, thethumb piece when turned down allows the tongue to assume its normalposition of engagement as before described. Besides, the body extension(6 itself yielding, or being yieldingly retained as it is, acts as aspring to positively hold down the thumb piece in a positionsubstantially as shown in Fig. 3

where the members are shown in conjunction, the tongue making itsinterlocking engagement and the thumbpiece held in its downturnedposition so that no possible release of the tongue can be had unless itis released by some positive action of the Such positive action consistsin turning up the'thumb piece. When the thumb pieceis turned up from aposition like that shown in Fig. 3 to a position like that shown in Fig.4, the thumb piece will turn upon the portion a acting as a fulcrum orbearing and the bar a of the thumb piece will bear against the extensionor tongue-carrying portion e which enters the slot or opening in thethumb piece. Thereupon the tongue willbe lifted by the bar a of thethumb piece into'a position of disengagement and the members A and B ofthe buckle loosed from one another whereupon they may be separated. r

When the thumb piece has been turned up sufliciently to entirelydisengage the tongue a as aforesaid, then the bar a thereof will havebeen turned to assume a position wedged or held fixedly between theextension a and the portion a of the member A on which account the thumbpiece will re main in a turned up position of disengagement whichcontinues until the tongue is released upon turning down the thumb pieceby a positive action of the operator. It is also to be noted that if thethumb piece is turned up and back it cannot be turned back so far thatsaid thumb-piece will become disengaged from the extension a from whichthe locking tongue a depends, owing to the fact that the rear edge ofthe bar a of the thumb-piece will come in contact with the dependingtongue a, and the top side portions of the said thumb-piece, outside ofthe slot a will come in contact with the forward edges of the sideportions of the body a outside of the extension a these parts serving asstops to limit the backward movement of the thumb-piece, and thusprevent the disengagement thereof from the said body a. It is hardlyneces sary to add that the tongue a after it has once been raised into adisengaging position with respect to the passive member 13 can again bereleased to engage therewith simply by turning down the thumb piece.

The buckle besides its efficiency in accomplishing the objects of myinvention as above pointed out, has also additional merit in the factthat its members can be very easily struck up from blanks stamped frommetal plate out of which I prefer to make them.

The member B comprising the passive member of the buckle or ladder is ofthe ordinary construction struck up from a single blank, and needs nofurther description being so well known in the art. Referenceaccordingly will onlyv be made to the active member A. The blanks fromwhich this member is formed are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Referring firstto Fig. 5, there is shown a blank consisting of a series of parts towhich I will refer in turn by describing the same in connection withsuch part of the member A as they are destined to form after the blankis struck up. The portion 1 forms the body a of said member. The slot 2therein forms the slot a through which the strap a, to which the memberis secured, is adapted to pass. The projecting portion 3 forms the bodyextension (4 and tongue a which is formed by simply bending over saidprojecting portion 3. From part 4 is formed the rest a, the part simplybeing struck down. The part 5 forms the part a. The slot 6 forms theopening a through which the passive member 13 is adapted to pass to beheld by the rest a when the two members of the buckle are broughttogether. The slot 7 is the slot (4 in the member struck up,supplementary to the slot a through which the strap a is adapted topass, the part 8 interposed between these slots forming the strap bar aand at which point the blank is bent.

In Fig. 6 there is represented the blank from which the thumb piece ismade. The blank comprises the parts 9, 10, and 11, which aresubstantially the same as the parts a, a and a of the thumb piece. Thethumb piece in fact requires no further manipulation than rounding itinto an att active form and so that it will not catch onto a garment.

In Fig. 7 I have shown a slight modification of the invention in thatthe interlocking tongue is formed upon the thumb piece instead ofdepending from the extension (L33 to the body a of the active member. Inother words, the thumb piece of the member is the tongue bearing-portionthereof, while the yielding portion a on which was formed or from whichdepended the interlocking tongue becomes the part designated a by whichthe tongue-bearing thumb piece may be held positively in place when inan engaging position. In fact, the tongue-bearing thumb piece becomespractically the acti ve member of a buckle, there being afforded in thepresent instance additional means by which the thumb piece when inoperative position, or in engagement with the passive member of thebuckle, is held positively in such position of engagement without anypossibility of its becoming disengaged until released by the operator.In describing this modified construction attention need only be furtherdirected to the tongue-bearing thumb piece, the thumb piece as suchbeing retained and operating substantially in the same manner as beforedescribed. As will be noted the thumb piece designated a has in it aslot and adjacent thereto a bar 0 along the edge thereof. This bar isadapted to be inserted between the body extension or clip 0 to rest uponthe part a forming a bearing in substantially the same way as was thebar a of the thumb piece inserted beneath the extension a and between itand the bearing presented by the part a in the first mentioned type ofbuckle. Ilxtending from the thumb piece so as to make interlockingconnection with the passive member of the buckle is a tongue o Of coursethe thumb piece being thus retained. by the spring and connectingindirectly as described with the part to be joined, may be turned up ordown from an engaging to a disengaging position or vice versa. Moreoverby the bearing of the extension or clip 0 against the bar of the thumbpiece it is held by pressure positively in place when in engagingposition.

When the interlocking tongue is on the thumb piece as just described itmay easily be struck from a blank. This form of blank I have shown inFig. 8 in which the portion 12 forms the main part a of the thumb piece,13 the slot 0 therein, l l the bar 0 adjacent to the slot and the cutportion 15 forms the tongue 0" when the blank is struck up. Of coursethe tongue might be formed upon the end of the thumb piece. Such construction I have shown in Fig. 9 in which the blank is provided with aprojection 16, which when the blank is struck up forms the tongue 0 onthe end of the thumb piece.

It will be observed that in the preferred form of the invention, shownin Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4, and also in the slightly modified form of theinvention shown in Fig. 7, the active member of the buckle consists ofpieces of spring sheet metal folded on itself to form the body a and theunderlying part a which extends forward of the end of the said body aand which carries the depressed rest a for the passive buckle member B,combined with athumb-piece which has a hinged or pivoted connection withthe said body a by virtue of a narrow extension on the said bodyentering a slot in said thumb piece, the latter, when lifted todisengage the locking tongue from the passive member of the buckle,bearing on the sides of the forward extension of the said part a so thatsaid thumb-piece may be held in. or out of locking position by thespring action of the two folded parts of the said active member. Also inthe modified form of the invention shown in Figs. 11 and 12 the springaction of the plate (P, with its forward extension, on the tongue (Z issimilar to the spring action just above described. It will also beobserved that the rest a which supports the passive member B isdepressed below the bottom of the part a underlying the body 0, so thatthe said passive member may be disposed beneath the active member of thebuckle, as shown in the drawings.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent of the United States: i

1. A buckle comprising separable active and passive members, saidpassive member being slotted and said active member having a body, aninterlocking tongue, connected with said body, for engaging said slottedpassive member, a thumb piece for controlling said tongue, said thumbpiece having an opening in it and a bar adjacent said opening to beengaged by said tongue, said body of the buckle presenting a forwardedge and being also provided with a member connected therewith to extendbeneath said body and beyond the forward edge thereof to provide abearing for said thumb piece and on which said thumb piece may rest andturn and occupy a position substantially flush with said. body of thebuckle with the rear edge of said. thumb piece adjacent the forwardedgeof said body when said thumb piece is in a downturned position, saidforwardly projecting member having also a slot therein and a depressedbar adjacent 'thereto forming a rest for said passive memher.

2. In a buckle, an active member having a body, an interlocking tongueconnected with said body, a thumb piece for controlling said tongne,said body of the buckle presenting a forward edge and being providedalso with a member integrally connected therewith at the rear edgethereof to extend forward beneath said body and beyond the forward edgethereof to provide a bearing for said thumb piece on which said thumbpiece i adapted to rest and turn and occupy a position substantiallyflush with said body of the buckle with the rear edge of said thumbpiece adjacent the forward edge of said body when said thumb piece is ina downturned position, said thumb piece having an opening in it 'enteredby said tongue and a bar adjacent said opening, said body of the bucklebeing provided also with an extension therefrom projecting beyond theforward edge thereof and extending over the bar of said thumb piece toenter the opening therein.

3. In a buckle, an active member having a body, an interlocking tongueconnected with said body, a thumb piece for controlling said tongue,said body of the buckle presenting a forward edge-and being pro-. videdalso with a member integrally connected therewith at the rear edgethereof to extend forward beneath said body and beyond the forward edgethereof to provide a bearing for said thumb piece on which said thumbpiece is adapted. to rest and turn and occupy a position substantiallyflush with said body of the buckle with the rear edge of said thumbpieceadjacent the forward edge of said body when said;

thumb piece is in a downturned position, said thumb piece having anopening 1n 1t entered by said tongue and a bar adjacent said opening.

4, A buckle comprising separable active and passive members, saidpassive member being slotted and said active member having a body, aninterlocking tongue for engaging said slotted passive member, a thumbpiece for controlling said tongue, said thumb piece having an openinginit and a bar adjacent said opening to be engaged bysaidtongue, saidbody of the buckle presenting a forward edge and be-- mg also providedwith a member connect-V -lt'orwardly projecting member having adepressed bar forming a rest for said passive member.

5. A buckle comprising separable active and passive members, saidpassive member being slotted and said active member hav ing a body, aninterlocking tongue for engaging said slotted passive member, a thumbpiece for controlling said tongue, said. thumb piece having an openingin it and a bar adjacent said opening to be engaged by said tongue, saidbody presenting a forward edge and being also provided with a memberconnected therewith to extend beneath said body and beyond the forwardedge thereof to provide a bearing for said thumb piece and on which saidthumb piece may rest and turn and occupy a position substantially flushwith said body with the rear edge of said thumb piece adjacent theforward edge of said body when said thumb piece is in a downturnedposition, said forwardly projecting member having also a slot thereinand a depressed bar adjacent to said slot and forming a rest for saidpassive member.

6. A buckle con'lprising a slotted passive member and an active member,the latter consisting of a piece of spring sheet metal folded on itselfto form a body and an underlying part which extends beyond said body andis provided with a rest or support for said passive member and whichrest or support is depressed below said underlying part, said bodyhaving a narrow forward extension provided at its end with a down-turnedtongue, combined with a hinged thnmb-piece having a slot entered by saidtongue, the said thumb-piece resting at its sides on the sides of theforward extension of said underlying part.

EDWIN J. KRAETZER.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN E. R. I'IAYES, M, E. FLAIIERTY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C.

